A family of women are left to fend for themselves as the father of the family fights in the US Civil War. The chief narrator is the second daughter, Jo March, who like Alcott has literary aspirations. Women’s rights and questions of equality are famously examined through their experiences but it is a delicious, funny and heart-rending account of life during the era.

“I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.”